Monday, October 31, 2005

Best of Jackson, WY restaurants

Tucked away in the perfect little ski town of Jackson, WY are restaurants that give a new meaning to the notion of ‘sweet perfection’. With limited time and space, the best of the best includes:

Billy’s

Billy’s is a retro nineteen fifties-esque diner that has it going on. You sit shoulder-to-shoulder on the old fashion soda counter stools and watch the show. The men who work the griddle are southern vagabond, recent college graduates, with more humor than anyone knows what to do with who can flip a mean burger. These astute grill practioners are masters of the meat and doctors of the waffle fries. You are background to the lives of men who make the biggest and juiciest half-pounder that is ever so lovingly placed on a bun with iceberg lettuce and tomato.

Dr. Uncanny Canadian and Ms. Uncanny American (aka Adorable Girlfriend) shared a perfect burger on both visits. And there was no shame in that. The abundant burger was split in half where both parties were served fries in their own basket and all for the price of less than $7.00. I challenge you to find a bargain like that elsewhere. Now that’s good stuff, fellow fans.

There is no shortage of quaint drama in this unassuming diner. There are handwritten rules posted on the wall. Now normally the Uncanny One is OK with rules and Ms. American Liberal is pitching a fit. Yet, diplomatic relations were achieved on these policies. For instance, lucky #30: no cell phone use at the counter. And the pretty persuasion of the female form that dared to use her cell phone got heckled by the grill masters and the other counter customers until she finally acquiesced. As did the woman who tried to order her burger rare. That would be rule #19.

While the food is flawless on its own and hardly needs accompaniment at all, it is really all about the classic rock in the speakers that serenades you. And it’s not just some Led Zeppelin or Doors saturating the diner, it is also a platform from which the grill masters quiz you. You need to bone up on your greatest guitar player ever, be able to name all four Doors members and know what year any specific Who song was written before you dine. However, do not fret if you do not know, it is likely neither does the guy next to you. It is just all part of the experience that makes Billy’s, well Billy’s. Ms. American informed Canadian that she would leave him for Billy at any moment upon exiting the second experience of the closest thing a Jewish girl can coin, “heaven”.

The Bunnery

The Bunnery is a no-frills bakery also in downtown Jackson. There are only two things you need to be aware of: the double c’s: carrot cake and clam chowder. We have already given you chowder advice, so the focus is on the cake today. The little slice of holiness you dine upon is bigger than Boss Hog’s gut and moister than the basement of a ranch in Louisiana. Put simply, Bunnery carrot cake is divine perfection. It needs no introduction or long diatribe. Had it been baking in the oven when Dante penned The Inferno it would have been noted in the gluttony sub-section. In fact, Adorable Girlfriend insisted it was so decadent that she had it at 9 AM on her birthday this year. Now that is a good piece of cake …

13 Comments:

For some reason I can't bring myself to eat or try carrot cake, even with the tempting cream cheese frosting. On the other hand I lap up any morsal of zucchini bread I can get my grubby little hands on. The even more absurd thing is that I hate zucchini and like carrots.I know, I know, there is no hope for my messed up soul

My next place to share beef with The Uncanny Canadian is Geno's and Jim's in Philadelphia. He will probably like Jim's. I prefer Geno's and wouldn't dare go to Pat's.

I got my colleague into the true Philadelphia cheesesteak and now that is all he eats when he goes there to visit clients. I have to get him to go for comfort food at Jones, but I am thinking he is hooked on the beef too much.